God Bless Powerpoint

When reading "Absolute PowerPoint" I constantly found myself disagreeing with many of the statements. I just wanted to address a few of them.

"When properly employed, PowerPoint makes the logical structure of an argument more transparent. Two channels sending the same information are better than one."
This one I actually completely agree with. I feel like the use of PPT to get a message across is much more functional than just speaking aloud. It makes it easier to sit through, easier to retain and write down the information. Having the information coming to you in an audible and visual format is, in my opinion, much more efficient.

..."because it's more fun to do that than concentrate on what you're going to say."
Not always true. I have, on several occasions, found myself dreading creating a PPT and finding it hard to come up with enough information for the slides to seem important. Do I have enough bullet points? Is this information even worthy of a bullet point? Do I need a picture? I think it can be just as challenging and daunting to create a good PPT as it is to come up with a good lecture, speech, etc.

on that same topic, "...a lecture is less likely to be poor if the speaker is using the program."
Yup. I agree. I think the classes that have worked the best for me (studying, taking notes, recalling information, sitting through class) have used PPT.I very distinctively remember telling my friends about a history class I took last semester where my professor did not use PPT, any visual aids, and he just stood at the front of the class, not moving, and talked. I went home and complained, "He doesn't use PowerPoint or anything!" I couldn't believe that a class as information heavy as that one was just going to be him standing still and talking for an hour and 15 minutes. Needless to say, I was mad, discouraged, saddened. All because my class wasn't going to be using a very effective, and in our generation, very commonplace and expected program to go through the lectures.

"PowerPoint gives you the outcome, but it removes the process."
No. Although I disagree, I do think this part of the argument very much depends on the one using it. I have sat through very many good lectures and speeches where the speaker used PPT and you could tell they were telling a story from beginning, to end. And you saw that whole process. And if they had to add on or go on a tangent, they did. No problem. Lots of times, they might even say, "This isn't on the slides but I just thought I'd add..." or something to that effect. I think using PPT, unless used badly, improperly or just plain ignorantly, is generally pretty effective. And I never feel alienated or distanced.

I love PowerPoint. I love it when my teachers and professors use it. I hope it never goes away.